Emma Time

It's my call week again at work, which  means I haven't seen much of my family all week. I work until 10:30 or later all week, and then I am on-call all night. So no matter what time I get home, everyone is already in bed.

This is what happens when I am gone all week...

I feel your pain Emma. So, luckily I have today off and Emma and I are spending it together, because tomorrow I am back at work again all day.

We started today off with some breakfast (and giggles) and then we went to the zoo before it got unbearably hot. It was actually pretty nice. It was about 78 degrees, and breezy, but by the end it was definitely heating up. It was nice to go in the morning because the animals were very active and Emma was having a great time watching them.

Apparently I wore her out because she is taking a snooze right now, and I am enjoying some AC. Next up, I am going to see if any city pools are still open and this afternoon we may go for a dip, which will feel wonderful in this hot, muggy weather.

I love spending a day with Emma, and I think the hubby and I may go out tonight while the grandparents watch Emma. Yay for family time :)

Sickness- Again

Unfortunately, Emma does not feel very good again. And the weekend started off so good!! My sister came to town yesterday, and she watched Emma while John and I went to a television taping of a radio show called Rock Garden Tour. It was okay, they made me laugh a couple times, and it was nice to have an evening out with the husband.

Today, John is shooting a wedding of one of my nursing school classmates. Rachel, Emma, and I went out to eat at Olive Garden for lunch and then ran a couple of errands around town. Emma was acting fine and doing well during our outing, and when we got home we put her in her crib to take a nap.

When Emma woke up, she was hot. I mean, burning up, on fire, hot. Her temp was 104.3, and she was feeling absolutely miserable. I gave her some tylenol, cuddles, and TLC. About an hour later, the temp finally fell to around 101, but Emma still feels pretty crummy.

Needless-to-say, instead of heading out to a wedding for some fun, we are spending the evening cuddling and keeping medicated. Right now, she is sleeping, and I hope she starts feeling better soon.

Poor sick Emma. On top of everything else, Emma is teething. She's got at least two new teeth coming, so she is a snotty, miserable, crabby, mess. I love her to death, but she needs to get better, for everyone's sake.

On an unrelated note, it is supposed to be hot and miserable here for the next couple weeks. I am talking about heat indexes in the triple digits, and very hot and humid. I am ready for some 70s and fall-like temps, guess I will be waiting a while...

Hope everyone is having a more enjoyable weekend than us!

The Butterfly House- Again

Emma is sick, again. It's just a cold, at least that's all it is so far. She's got the runny nose and cough, and snot everywhere.

She's doing ok, but bedtime is the worst. When she lays flat, all the snot drains to the back of her throat and then she coughs, a lot, which wakes her up, and then that wakes us up. So, last night was a rough night, hopefully tonight will be better.

I had the day off today, so Emma and I hung out all day. It was a pretty fun day. We spent the morning playing with all sorts of toys and being silly. After lunch, we headed out to the Butterfly House. We are in quite a heat wave right now- it's like 90 degrees out and humid, and well above average temps for this time of year. So, I was looking for some kind of activity that we could get out of the house, but still be indoors. So, we hit up the butterfly house.

Emma enjoyed the trip. We were only there for about an hour, but we had a good time. We looked at all the fish in the aquarium, and then walked through the butterfly house, which was very warm inside.

After the Butterfly House, we headed for home. Emma is finally taking her afternoon nap- it took her forever to go down. So, I am finally enjoying some time to relax a little before work tomorrow.

I also have her kiddie pool filled up with water, so when she wakes up we are going to do some swimming. Should be fun!

14 Months Old

I didn't realize I forgot a couple posts of Emma's likes/dislikes, and milestones. The last one I did was at 11 months, and now she is 14 months. Whoops.

Well, Emma turned 14 months old a couple days ago. She weighs 21 lbs 8 oz and is around 28 inches long. And Emma can walk now! Well, kind of. She is really good at standing by herself, and her balance is getting really good. She is just a little too unsure about the whole walking thing. She will take a few steps, and do really well, and then she realizes what is happening and she immediately goes back to knees and starts crawling around. It's more a mental thing right now than anything, but she is getting REALLY close to fully walking. It's pretty exciting.

She is also doing some more talking. She says "mom" and "da-da" and she does know some sign language that they have been teaching her at daycare. They taught her how to say "more" and "milk". Emma definitely understands more than she speaks though. She waves when we say "bye-bye" and if I say "come here' she will raise her arms so I can pick her up. It's amazing to watch her learn so much in such a short time.

Her fine motor skills are also vastly improving. She can pick up just about anything, and use the pincher grasp to pick up very small objects.

Emma's likes
-Crawling around likes she owns the place
-Being "chased" (she loves when we say "I'm going to get you" and chase her around)
-Rough-housing (loves being thrown in the air, pushed around, tickled)
-Whole milk (Yep, we have transitioned to whole milk, and the sippy cup is finally working well for Emma. And we only use a bottle right before bed, but I think we will be completely bottle-less soon, so yay!)
-Finger foods (Emma's meals consist of us giving her things off of our plates, along with some extra fruit and veggies. Emma will try anything, and usually she likes most of it. Fruits are a major hit. Veggies are still a work in progress. She loves bread, pasta, and meats. And of course, no eggs or any foods with eggs in it for Emma)
-Books (Emma spends so much time looking at books. She loves turning the pages and looking at all the pictures. She still isn't quite patient enough to listen to us read to her, but she loves book non-the-less.)
-Toys (our living room toys are usually all over the living room, and it gets a little ridiculous, but Emma spends so much time playing with them, it's totally worth it)
-Playing outside (she still loves playing in the parks, crawling/walking through the grass, visiting the zoo, pool time, and just spending time outdoors in general)
-Daycare (She still does really well at daycare and loves spending time with other kids her age)
-Her crib (once upon a time Emma hated her crib, now she sleeps like a baby in her crib and sleeps all through the night)
-Pacifiers (yes, these damn things are still around. They are getting used less and less, and some day soon I am going to break down and just throw them all away, until then they do work well at bedtime..)
-Water (she loves to play in the water-splashing and playing with water toys)

Emma's dislikes
-Anytime she has to sit still or is not able to crawl/walk on her own- like in church, being strapped in a stroller, sometimes even when strapped in her car seat
-Diaper changes (this one isn't so bad, but she had a bad diaper rash about a week ago and she did not enjoy her changes then, so it's still a sensitive thing for her)
-Being tired (still gets oober crabby when she is tired, and sometime has to fight sleep instead of just giving in, but usually bedtime is a pretty easy process)

Emma is at such a fun age and I love watching her grow. This summer has been a ton of fun and I can't wait for all the new adventures to experience with her in the future :)

Judie's 60th Birthday Party

It's been a great weekend so far! Yesterday, John had a photo shoot in Brookings, so Emma and I spent the day together. We played, went out to eat, and went shopping. It was an awesome day, and I really enjoyed have some Emma and me time.

Yesterday, we also had a 60th Birthday Party for John's aunt Judie. It was a gorgeous evening, and it was really nice to spend some time with family.

We went out to Parker for the party and enjoyed some food and company. Emma had a good time, and behaved really well. It was a great evening for everyone, especially Judie.

Oh, and this also happened yesterday...

Too many bubbles. But adorable.

Have a great weekend!!!

The Turner County Fair

It's fair season! Last night, we headed to Parker for the Turner County Fair. It was a beautiful evening, but on the chilly side, as we were wearing jeans, and eventually sweatshirts. But, it was sunny and calm, and I couldn't have asked for a better evening.

We started the evening out by checking out the petting barn, and looking at the bunnies and chickens. Emma had fun petting what she could reach and looking at everything. We then decided to consume some fair food, which was awesome, like it always is.

After walking around some more, we headed to the park area and listened to some music while Emma was finally allowed to crawl around and have some space.

Emma was being quite the little ham, and entertaining everyone. She did really well at the fair and had a good time. We left at about 8:30pm, which was getting pretty late for Emma. We had a great evening, and now it's back to reality and back to work.  :(

Omaha Zoo Weekend

Wow, I honestly don't know what has happened to the last two weeks. This summer is flying by WAY too fast. I don't want it to end :(

Let's see, two weekends ago, we had a softball tournament all day on Saturday. We played 3 games, which totally wore John and I out, we are not as young as we used to be. It was a hot, sunny day, so we got a ton of sun, and we had fun playing. We didn't end up placing in the tournament, but it was a good time. We ended the day with a grill-out with the softball team, it was a really good time.

The rest of the weekend was hell. I have never felt so crappy. I don't know what I had, but it involved a throbbing headache, achy joints, chills, fever, and just all-around being miserable. Whatever it was, it went through our entire household, thank goodness we are all healthy now.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately, so we have been spending a lot of time outside and visiting parks. Emma loves playing outside, and we love enjoying the beautiful summer weather.

 We have also discovered that Emma's hair is just long enough to put into pigtails. And, Emma can now stand up on her own, stand alone, and take a few steps on her own (if she is coaxed enough). She can walk- she is just a little unsure about the whole walking thing yet, so it takes some persuading :)

 This last weekend, we headed to Omaha to take Emma to the zoo. My entire family, plus John and Emma went to the zoo on Saturday. Omaha has an awesome zoo, it is huge and has about any animal you would want to see. We spent 5 hours in the hot sunshine, walking around looking at animals. It was a lot of fun, but the crowds were insane! There were way too many people at the zoo. We decided we are never going to the zoo on a Saturday again!

Emma did so good on our weekend trip. We spent 3 hours in the car to get to Omaha, and she didn't fuss once. She did really well at the crowded, hot zoo. And then we went out to eat and spent the night in a hotel, and Emma was a champ. She did get up at 5 am, and stayed up for the day, so that wasn't the most fun, but overall we couldn't have asked for her to behave any better.

We headed back home on Sunday, and my parents stayed until Monday to help stain our deck and trim our trees. Our yard is looking pretty snazzy this year. We have put a lot of work into it!

Last night, John's family and his aunt Jill came to visit for the evening. Jill is visiting from Yuma, AZ so it was nice to catch up with her. They brought supper with them, and Emma had no problem digging in.

She loved her supper, but we discovered there were eggs in it after she had eaten it, so it was benadryl to the rescue again. She got hives again, but they cleared up pretty quickly, and then Emma was just fine.

Today, (yes, we are FINALLY caught up to today) is our 3rd Anniversary. I'm not sure how it has been three years ago already! Man, times flies. It has been the best three years of my life, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

Lastly, it's fair season! Tonight we are heading out to the Turner County Fair, I can't wait for Emma to see all the animals and all the lights and eat fair food. It's going to be so fun!! John and I did go to the Sioux Empire Fair last week,and we saw Kip Moore play, but I love fair time, and I can't wait to go hang out there tonight.

Sorry for the busy blog, I will try to blog more frequently, sometime time just goes by way too fast!!! Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather this summer as well :)